If you think you will get something from practicing zazen, already you are involved in impure practice. It is all right to say there is practice, and there is enlightenment, but we should not be caught by the statement. You should not be tainted by it. When you practice zazen, just practice zazen. If enlightenment comes, it just comes. We should not attach to the attainment. The true quality of zazen is always there, even if you are not aware of it, so forget all about what you think you may have gained from it. Just do it. The quality of zazen will express itself; then you will have it.

Shunryu Suzuki

from the book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

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Further quotes from the book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind:

• Just to live
• Belief based on a self-centered idea
• Open to all the possibilities
• Your last moment
• The posture itself
• Wisdom seeking wisdom
• Calmness in activity
• Empty and ready mind
• The teaching of transiency
• Opening up our small mind
• The awareness that you are here
• Weed
• Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble
• Accepting change
• Do not be bothered by anything
• The weeds you have in your mind
• Little by little
• Beginner’s mind
• Spacious control